Obama uses money earmarked for other expenses to buy IL prison touted as replacement for Gitmo. Despite democrap lies to the contrary, expect this to be a move to close Gitmo and transfer those prisoners to the mainland if Obama gets 4 more years. The Obama administration and Gov. Pat Quinn have mapped out an end-run around the GOP that will enable the state to unload the long-mothballed Thomson Correctional Center for $165 million, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbinâs office confirmed Tuesday. The federal government will pay that amount to convert the facility, built in the 1990s but never opened because the state couldnât afford to staff it, into a maximum-security prison. That conversion will give the stateâs battered treasury an unexpected windfall and pump 1,000 prison jobs and several hundred construction jobs into northwestern Illinois. âThis prison they spent a lot of money on and hoped to use as an economic engine in the area is now going to become a federal prison,â Sen. Dick Durbin told the Chicago Sun-Times. Durbin emphasized that a plan once envisioned by President Barack Obamaâs administration to transfer terrorism detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Thomson has been abandoned, and that those housed at the new federal prison will be domestic criminals. âThis argument they can move Guantanamo detainees in the future there is completely false for the following reason: Weâve signed these treaties with countries around the world, and one of them is you donât put military prisoners in anything other than a military prison,â Durbin said. House Republicans in Washington, D.C., balked at the acquisition, fearing the prison somehow would in fact house Guantanamo detainees and refusing to sign off on its purchase. At a news conference Tuesday announcing the purchase, Durbin said U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has testified under oath before Congress that the prisoners wonât be transferred, but GOP opponents still couldnât be convinced. Funds for the acquisition are coming from already appropriated dollars in the Department of Justiceâs budget and not the Defense Department, which has the sole authority to construct and maintain military prisons, Durbin said. http://www.suntimes.com/news/crime/...homson-prison-from-state-for-165-million.html